More travel teams meant more entrepreneurs masquerading as coaches, and more salesmanship. Words such as “elite’’ and “premier’’ became such common labels, they lost their meaning.
Scott said, “Travel is no longer for the best players. It’s for the best players who can afford it.’’
Academies pop up. Skills are up. Playing sense is down.
This article isn’t about baseball. But the story is the same.
The one silver lining is with programs having multiple teams at every age group they are able to turn over enough of a profit where they can almost completely subsidize the 16 & 17u "A" teams.
I would feel pretty comfortable saying that very few talented players miss out on college opportunities because of money.
10 years ago you played rec. The best rec players made all stars. The best all star players probably played for a travel team which did local tournaments and maybe one or two each summer within a 3 hour drive or maybe a hotel stay. You probably went to Cooperstown at some point. I can't imagine this is the model anymore.
I noticed, a lot of kids who did not do much beyond all stars all gave up baseball in 9th-11th grades.
